“Gunter Grass's shameful moral equivalence between Israel and Iran, a regime that denies the Holocaust and threatens to annihilate Israel, says little about Israel and much about Mr. Grass," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

"It is Iran, not Israel, that is a threat to the peace and security of the world.

"It is Iran, not Israel, that threatens other states with annihilation.

"It is Iran, not Israel, that supports terror organizations that fire rockets on innocent civilians.

"It is Iran, not Israel, that is supporting the Syrian regime's massacre of its own people.

"It is Iran, not Israel, that stones women, hangs gays and brutally represses tens of millions of its own citizens.

"For six decades, Mr. Grass hid the fact that he had been a member of the Waffen SS. So for him to cast the one and only Jewish state as the greatest threat to world peace and to oppose giving Israel the means to defend itself is perhaps not surprising.

"But decent people everywhere should strongly condemn these ignorant and reprehensible statements," the PMO's office said.